1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to systems and methods for locating an unknown microphone using microphones with known locations.
2. Description of Related Art
When a number of people participate in a meeting, teleconference, news conference, lecture, or the like, it is advantageous to determine the location of a speaker in order to, for example, focus lighting on the speaker, point a camera at the speaker, and/or activate a microphone nearest a speaker.
Various methods have been proposed to estimate the location of such a speaker. For example, the SpotON system utilizes a dedicated tracking device worn on the speaker. However, employing a separate tracking system, requires the cost and resources necessary to set up, use, and manage a system dedicated solely to the tracking of a speaker wearing a tracking device. Furthermore, if someone without a tracking device speaks, for instance an audience member or late arrival, they cannot be tracked by the system.
Other methods, in an attempt to avoid the increased cost and resource expenditure associated with a separate tracking system, use an array of microphones, each microphone having a known position, to triangulate the location of a speaker or other object based sounds emitted by the speaker or object. However, these systems are only capable of tracking various objects that emit sounds. As such, a speaker or object cannot be located until he, she, or it emits a sound. As a result, a speaker's or object's location cannot be determined until after they emit a sound.